CH923. Statistics for data analysis.

Statistics often brings a shudder of horror to many people, and my initial reaction was also the same. Yes, this is a statistics module and yes you will also need to do some programming.

The packages used for the statistics are R or GenStat: you will need to be able to use one of these packages well by the end of the course and you do not have much time to get familiar with them. So this module is not an easy one to get to grips with if you have never done statistics or programming.

This is a time heavy module if you struggle with statistics, so I would recommend that before you come to MOAC you learn a little about statistics.

A good starting point is the book: Statistics for terrified biologists by Helmut van Emden.

This nice book has no programming for the unexperienced and you can always play with a spreadsheet package if you want to get the hang of how to play with the numbers.

Once you have some idea on what you want to do with statistics then the programming side comes much easier and you will pick things up quick enough.

What would I do differently?: I would have learnt about statistics over the summer.

What did I enjoy?: I found this course difficult, but I did like the probability lecture.

What didn't I enjoy?: The time it took me to understand everything, there were times when I really wondered what on earth was going on and if I ever would understand it.